Connor Grubb listens to opening statements in his police shooting trial in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Nov. 5, 2025. Connor Grubb, 31, is charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault in connection with the Aug. 24, 2023, shooting death of 21-year-old Ta'Kiya Young and her unborn child.
Ta'Kiya Young's grandmother, Nadine Young, reacts Friday, Nov. 21, 2025 as the verdict is read in the trial of Connor Grubb, who was found not guilty in the on-duty death of her daughter in a grocery store parking lot. The trial was held in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus, Ohio.

An Ohio jury acquitted a police officer of murder and other charges in the fatal shooting of a pregnant woman accused of shoplifting from a grocery store in 2023.

The Franklin County jury reached a verdict on Nov. 21, after about eight hours of deliberation over two days in this case of Connor Grubb, who was charged in the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Ta'Kiya Young. She was about six months pregnant at the time of her death.

When the verdict was read, Young's family reacted in shock and disbelief, letting out cries from the gallery.

"You killed her and her baby," yelled Young's grandmother, Nadine Young. "It's not right. He gets to walk away free."

Grubb, who had faced six charges of murder, felonious assault and involuntary manslaughter, had no visible reaction to the verdict.

On Aug. 24, 2023, Grubb fatally shot Young during an interaction that lasted about 10 seconds. It began when Blendon Township Sgt. Erik Moynihan, who was helping a woman locked out of her car, was flagged down by a Kroger employee in the store's parking lot.

The employee told Moynihan a woman had stolen from the store and pointed to Young's vehicle, identifying her as a suspect. Moynihan testified that he approached the driver's side window and told Young to turn off her car and get out. Young refused.

Body camera video shows Grubb walking to the front of Young's car before it moves forward, hitting him. Images and videos shown during Grubb's trial show Grubb's feet off the ground when he fired the single shot that struck Young.

Grubb is currently on unpaid leave from the Blendon Township police department, which has previously said any internal review of the shooting would not happen until the criminal case was over.

Young was the mother of two sons, who were 6 and 3 years old at the time of her death. When she was shot, Young was also pregnant with a daughter whom her family said was due that November.

Her death sparked several peaceful vigils in her memory and in honor of her unborn daughter.

In a statement released after the verdict, the legal team representing Young's estate said her two sons, both under the age of 10, deserve to know their mother's life mattered.

"They deserve financial security," the statement said. "They deserve to grow up in a world where pregnant Black women are not killed by police over shoplifting accusations. And they deserve a legal system that delivers accountability even when a criminal jury cannot."

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Contributing: Eric Lagatta

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio officer found not guilty in fatal shooting of pregnant woman

Reporting by Bethany Bruner and Christopher Cann, USA TODAY NETWORK / The Columbus Dispatch

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